House Passes No Aid for Ghost Students Act
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
The House on Wednesday passed legislation, in a 249-172 vote, which aims to codify the Department of Education’s (ED) recent fraud prevention measures on the FAFSA form.
First introduced by Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah.), the No Aid for Ghost Students Act would amend the Higher Education Act (HEA) to require the Education Secretary to use an identity fraud detection system to review each FAFSA to determine whether the FAFSA presents a reasonable suspicion of identity fraud. It is NASFAA’s understanding that the intent of the bill is to codify the fraud detection measures that ED recently launched in April.
Already, ED has detailed how its FAFSA fraud prevention measures work.
The bill specifies that this fraud detection system would screen each FAFSA submitted on or after October 1, 2026. If a student is suspected of identity fraud, the student would receive a notification from ED that they are subject to additional identity verification requirements. If an institution wants to disburse aid to this student, the institution would need to verify that student’s identity.
Additionally, the bill would require the Education Secretary to establish guidelines for its identity verification procedures for institutions no later than October 1, 2026. The bill would also require ED to annually conduct an evaluation of the identity fraud detection system and report on its effectiveness to Congress.
The legislation in March advanced out of the House Education & Workforce Committee in a 30-3 vote.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chair of the Education & Workforce Committee, praised the passage of the legislation, saying that fraudsters have stolen billions of taxpayer dollars from the federal student aid programs.
“No Aid for Ghost Students Act is a common-sense solution to strengthen oversight, improve identity verification, and stop fraud before it happens—ensuring we can maintain the integrity of our federal student aid system,” Walberg said in a statement. Every federal student aid dollar should go to a student pursuing an education, not to criminals exploiting the system."
However, since the Education & Workforce Committee’s consideration, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), who serves as ranking member, has expressed concern about the legislation’s enforcement standards and a lack of guidance, which could allow the administration to further “weaponize” student aid.
“The Trump Administration has issued numerous threats and made efforts to withhold Title IV funding as a weapon of ideological control over educational institutions,” Scott said. “Already, this Administration has rewritten the accreditation handbook, threatened funding to select institutions that violate its legally dubious executive orders, and embedded ideological conditions into annual participation agreements.”
Scott further requested that Congress allow ED’s anti-fraud system to operate and evaluate the department’s findings.
In the Senate, companion legislation was introduced by Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), where it has yet to be considered by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
Publication Date: 6/12/2026
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